Rebuilding
by MariCareBear
Summary: A tragedy strikes in Everwood and brings Ephram and Amy back to meet again, face to face for the first time in years. There are secrets between them neither one of them is willing to share.
1. Chapter 1

27-year-old Amy Abbot can't help but smile as she listens to her musically inclined daughters playing the piano and flute in her living room, the sound of Beethoven's 5th symphony floating into the kitchen. But after a brief pause Amy goes back to the pile of dishes in the sink, her hands are elbow deep in water when the telephone rings not wanting to disturb the girls' practice time she quickly pulls her hands out and dries them off, grabbing the phone right before the answering machine.  
  
"Hello?" Amy breathes into the phone.  
  
"Amy?" Laynie Hart's voice reaches through the telephone lines.  
  
"Laynie hi!" Amy greets her friends cheerfully. When Amy had found out that Laynie was living in Denver 7 years ago when Amy moved there the two had gotten to be good friends; they hadn't spoken since Colin's funereal when they were 15.  
  
"Amy have you seen the news?" Laynie's voice sounds grave and Amy stops short.  
  
"No, why? What's going on ?"  
  
"There have been terrible flash floods in Everwood. Houses have been destroyed, roads are out, Amy it's really bad. They evacuated 2 days ago and they are now going to start letting people back into town."  
  
"I have been so busy with the girls I haven't had a chance to sit down to watch the news or talk to anyone. Is there anything we can do?" Amy questions.  
  
"Steven and I are driving in as soon as we can get stuff together, the Red Cross is all ready there but they said they can use as many volunteers as possible. You and the girls are welcome to ride along with us if you want."   
  
"Of course." Amy responds quickly, "I an have the girls and I packed in 5 minutes. But is there anything I should bring?"  
  
"When we called Red Cross they said blankets, bottled water, canned food, anything along those lines. They also said some families have lost everything, but they couldn't give specifics and I haven't heard from anyone." As Laynie speaks Amy covers her mouth with her hand.  
  
"I'll go to the store and pick up as much as I can." Amy finally responds.  
  
"OK. Is an hour enough time, I want to get there as soon as possible."   
  
"An hour's fine." Amy responds.   
  
"Mommy what's going on?" Bailey, one of Amy's twin 7-year-old daughters questions as both girls sit on either side of their mother in Laynie's SUV.  
  
"Sweetie there was a flood in the town grandma and grandpa live in and we are going to go an help them out." Amy responds hoping that her daughters fully understand.  
  
"Is everyone OK?" Ronli, the more sensitive of the girls, questions.  
  
"We aren't sure yet Ronie, we haven't been able to get a hold of anyone, all of the power is out. So we will have to see when we get there." Amy states, silently offering a silent prayer that everyone is all right.  
  
The rest of the drive was spent in quietly, the only thing to break the silence was the occasional chatter of the twins and the news station Steven ahd the radio tuned to.   
  
Staring in awe of their hometown both Laynie and Amy have tears in their eyes as Steven directs the large vehicle through the debris laden roads, and asking the question, "where to?"  
  
Amy bites her lip before responding, "try the old train station, Dr. Brown's office. There is a lot of room there, it seems like the logical place for people to be helping out."  
  
"Amy is right." Laynie responds before directing her husband toward the old train station.  
  
"You girls need to stay out of the way, people are going to be really busy and you can't be underfoot." Amy orders gently and both girls nod in response. As the SUV pulls to stop in front of the old train station Amy helps both her daughters into their jackets, it may have stopped raining but the wind was biting and the last thing she needed was either one of them sick.  
  
"Amy Abbot?" Sarah Collins, an elderly woman who had baby-sat Amy when she was younger takes Amy into a tight hug.  
  
"Hi Mrs. Collins." Amy greets as both her daughters cling behind her. "Is my dad in Dr. Brown's office?"  
  
"I'm sure he is dear, the whole town is in there." Mrs. Collins responds, "you are such a doll we should have figured that you would be here to lend a hand." With those words the older woman moves on to greet Laynie.  
  
"Dad!" Amy's catches sight of her father immediately, it looks as if he has gained about 10 years since she had seen him at Christmas.  
  
Harold Abbot turns quickly to face his daughter and granddaughters as both the girls rush toward him he pulls them to him and hugs both girls tightly. "Amy what are you doing here?" Harold asks once he sets the two girls back down and hugs his own daughter.  
  
"Laynie called and told me what was going on, I had to come help. What can I do?"  
  
"Mr. Brown I've got you're plane ticket into Denver Airport." Ephram stops in front of his secretary's desk. With a smile Brenda Larson smiles brightly as she hands Ephram the plane tickets. "And your nanny called and said that she will meet you at the airport with the kids and your luggage so that you can make your flight."  
  
"Thank you so much Brenda you are a god-send." Ephram smiles at his secretary of 2 years.   
  
"How many days worth of appointments do you want me to reschedule?" Brenda questions.  
  
"For right now just 3, I don't know how long they are going to need me in Everwood." Ephram responds, "but don't worry about it to much have a great weekend with Tom and the kids."  
  
"Thanks Mr. Brown, and your taxi is waiting downstairs." Brenda calls as Ephram hurries out of his law office and onto the elevator.  
  
"Daddy!" Ephram searches the crowded New York City airport in search of the voices that had chorused out as soon as he steps out of the taxi. He catches sight of his nanny first, Anne Fischer was 20 and had been working as his Nanny for about 6 months. Before he even catches sight of his children arms wrap around his legs and he looks down on two red heads.  
  
Kneeling down Ephram hugs the 8-year-old boy and and the 5-year-old girl, "I'm going to miss you guys."  
  
"Daddy please don't go." Tamra's blue eyes fill with tears as she hugs her father tightly.  
  
"Stop Tamra he has to go." Troy orders gently.  
  
"I don't want him to go!" Tamra cries as she clings tightly around Ephram's neck. "What if he doesn't come back, like Mommy didn't."  
  
Ephram gently smoothes the little girls hair and Ephram can see in Troy's gray eyes that he hadn't thought about that. So quickly Ephram assures the two, "I'll be back soon, but remember how I said there was a really bad flood where Grandpa Andy lives?"  
  
Both children nod solemnly and Ephram can see that neither one of them are assured that he would be coming home, "I will call you as soon as I get there OK?" Both children finally nod and hug Ephram tightly, "Tamra don't cry anymore OK baby, everything will be all right, Anne's going to take good care of you guys. Troy take care of your sister and brother OK and help Anne out as much as you can." When both children nod Ephram stands straight up and takes his sleeping one-year-old son from Anne and kisses him gently on the forehead before returning him to Anne.  
  
"Don't worry about anything here Mr. Brown. Everything will be fine." Anne assures. "Just concentrate on helping everyone in Everwood."  
  
"Thanks, listen they probably aren't going to sleep very well tonight. They don't have school in the morning so don't fight them on it. You shouldn't have any real problems with Troy or Jamie, but I can almost guarantee that Tamra is going to give you a hard time."  
  
"I'm sure they will be fine Mr. Brown," Anne assures, "you have really great kids."  
  
"OK thanks Anne." With a final hug and kiss for each of the three children Ephram grabs his overnight bag and hurries into the airport and towards his terminal. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
"Amy do you have any place for us to stay?" Amy smiles gently at the Roberts family, they were one of half of the residents of Everwood with major water damage and needed a place to stay. Amy was in charge of finding places for everyone to stay, seeing how everyone opened there homes to anyone made Amy realize how much she loved the quaint, small town feeling and how much she missed Everwood.  
  
Ronie and Bailey had attracted the attention of the people waiting in Amy's line. Finally after flipping through the ledger that held all of the houses available and writing the name and address on a slip of paper and relief washes over the family of four's faces.  
  
Stretching Amy allows herself to look around the busy train station and Amy's eyes land on a beautiful younger woman walking toward her. She wears low rise jeans and a tube top and her long dark brown hair is pulled back into a clip and it takes Amy several seconds to realize who the woman is.  
  
"Amy!" Delia exclaims hugging Amy tightly.  
  
"Delia, oh my God how are you?" Amy asks staring at the young woman who had only been a child the last time she had even glimpsed her.   
  
Delia smiles, "I'm good. I flew in from Chicago as soon as I heard, my classes are over for the summer anyway. But my Dad said you've been working for nearly six hours trying to get living arrangements organized. Nina is donating all of the food in Mama Joy's to anyone who wants to eat there. Why don't you go on over and get something to eat for you and your girls."  
  
"But..."  
  
"I'll take over here. IT's way past dinner time, I'm sure the girls are hungry. So go on."  
  
"All right, thank you. Come on girls." Amy calls the girls away from their captive audience. Each girl takes one of Amy's hands as they pick their way through the mud and debris, across the street. Mama Joy's was packed full of people eating and talking and all but one table is full. The only open table has Andy sitting alone with a cup of coffee.  
  
"Hi Dr. Brown." Amy greets hugging the older man, whom at one point she had hated with everything in her being.  
  
"How are you Amy?" Andy questions.  
  
"I'm good, I've been really busy running my daughters around." Amy stops realizing that Andy had never met the twins. "Dr. Brown I would like you to meet my daughters Ronlie and Bailey."  
  
"Ronie!" Ronie corrects.  
  
"Well it's good to meet both of you." Andy shakes both girls' hands, "why don't you join me? Nina will be out in a minute to eat with us. I'll run in and have her bring you out something to eat. What can I get you ladies?"  
  
"Peanut butter and honey!" Ronie exclaims.  
  
"Peanut butter, banana and honey please." Bailey requests softly.  
  
"For you, Amy?"  
  
"A sandwich is fine." Amy responds.  
  
When Andy and Nina emerge from the kitchen the twins' sandwiches are placed before them, along with two glasses of milk and fruit on the side. Amy on the to her hand has a bowl of Mama Joy's Chili and Cornbread, her favorite, Nina had remembered.  
  
"My mother told me you got married, congratulations." Amy states as they being eating.  
  
Nina and Andy both smile, and Nina responds, "thank you. Mama Joy gave us Mama Joy's for a wedding present. She was on her deathbed, and she had no family to pass it on too..."  
  
Amy glances around, "it looks exactly the same and the food tastes the same."  
  
"We haven't changed anything. We wanted everything like it has always been."  
  
"Plus it's Everwood and nothing ever changes around here." Andy adds.  
  
"Some things change." Amy states. "like the fact that you and my father have worked together all day and I don't think I've heard any of you usual banter."  
  
Nina laughs, "ok there's still plenty o that."  
  
"How's Sam?" Amy asks.  
  
"He's great he's doing really well in school." Andy responds, "he's going to be a sophomore next year."  
  
"Where is he?" Amy questions.   
  
"He's helping out at the veterinarian clinic. He wants to be a vet so he jumped at the chance to help out there."  
  
"That's great I saw Delia she looks great, so grown-up I didn't get the chance to ask her, what's she majoring in?"  
  
"Pre-law," Andy beams proudly.  
  
Nina nods, "you should hear her, she can persuade anyone to do anything for you."  
  
Amy smiles probably from growing up with having her dad and brother wrapped around her finger all the time. How is Ephram?"  
  
Andy and Nina exchange glances, and Andy finally states, "Ephram lost his wife a little over a year ago."  
  
"That's terrible!" Amy exclaims, "I'm so sorry. His poor son."  
  
Andy and Nina exchange quick startled looks again and Andy questions, "how'd you know about Ephram's kids?"  
  
"Just his oldest son." Amy bites her lip not wanting to be questioned.  
  
But it was to late Andy's curiosity was sparked, did your parents tell you about Troy?"  
  
Amy shakes her head, she might as well be honest, "Ephram was in Denver once and we ran into each up, and caught up."  
  
"Oh when was what?"  
  
"Spring break of our freshman years in college." Amy responds.  
  
Subtly Nina and Andy's eyes fall on the twins who are lost n their own world, but Amy picks up on the gesture. And the look in Nina and Andy's eyes are the same looks she'd seen in her parents eyes when she had let it slip that she had seen Ephram then too.  
  
The uncomfortable silence is broken by Bailey's glass of milk tipping over and spilling milk everywhere. "I'm sorry!" Bailey cries.  
  
"Well there's no use crying over spilled milk." Andy states jumping up to wipe up the milk.  
  
"Bailey cries over everything." Ronie sighs as if annoyed by her sister's tears.  
  
"I do not!" Bailey exclaims but her sister's words only make her cry harder.  
  
"I should get them to bed." Amy states helping mop up the milk.  
  
"Of course, go on Amy we have everything under control here."  
  
"All right, thank you for dinner." Amy responds picking up Bailey and taking Ronie's hand, "it was good catching up with you."  
  
Ephram's place landed in Denver just as the sun was sinking out of sight. Grabbing his carry-on he heads to the car rental to pick up the truck he had rented. Ephram hadn't set foot in Colorado in just over seven years, Nina, his father, Delia and Sam had always come to visit him and Alayna in New York. His father had called the day before telling him that they were all right but his help would be greatly appreciated if he could get away from the office for a few days. And for a reason Ephram still wasn't sure of why he had actually come, something had compelled him ot take off work, leave his children behind and flew across the country to help the town he had left behind seven years ago. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
  
Delia came flying at him the instant Ephram set foot in the house, his 21-year-old sister seemed near hysterics, she wraps her arms tightly around him, "I'm so glad you're here."  
  
"Is everything all right?" Ephram asks immediately concerned that something had happened in the couple of hours since he had spoken to his family.  
  
Delia nods wiping at her eyes, "yeah, it's just been a long day, I'm tired and I happy to see you, to many emotions."  
  
"The house seems to have made it through unharmed." Ephram comments.  
  
Delia nods, "everything in the living room is destroyed but that's a hell of a lot better than a lot of the town."  
  
"Dad said, how's everyone holding up?" Ephram asks.  
  
"Our family is fine." Delia responds. "There are so many people here helping. Laynie drove up and Amy came with her."  
  
"Amy Abbot?" Ephram asks, he hadn't even considered the fact that Amy would come back to Everwood to help out.  
  
Delia nods, "she's here with her daughters."  
  
"Daughters?" Ephram asks.  
  
"Yeah, twins, they're cute, Ronie and Bailey, identical girls." Delia responds attempting to judge her brother's expression.  
  
"Oh." Is the way Ephram responds, "well I'm going to go to bed so I can get up early to help."  
  
"Ephram." Delia stops her brother.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
She considers what she is going to say and finally Delia decides on, "I'm glad you're here to help."  
  
"Ephram's in town." Laynie approaches Amy the next morning, Amy is busy putting food boxes together for everyone in town.  
  
Amy drops the can of food she'd been holding at Laynie's words and she turns to face her friend, "how do you know?"  
  
"I saw him." Laynie responds simply, "then I came to tell you I saw him."  
  
Amy quickly glances the crowd over and then turns back to face Laynie, "thanks for letting me know, although there isn't really much I can do about him being here, is there? Besides Ephram and I are history, long over."  
  
"Some things are best left buried," Laynie comments.  
  
"Right."  
  
"But are you sure this is one of them?" Laynie asks.  
  
"He was married remember, he has children, this is one of those things." Amy retorts quickly returning her attention to the box in front of her.  
  
"But Amy, you said that his wife died...." Laynie begins.  
  
"Laynie, not..." Amy glances around and her eyes instinctively fall on her children, "now."  
  
Laynie sighs, "fine Amy, but nobody can run from the past forever. You've tried and your past is just about to catch up with you." With her words Laynie returns across the station to her job of handing out blankets.  
  
"I was directed over here." Ephram's words catch Amy off guard and she flies around.  
  
"Ephram," Amy takes a deep breath, "I heard you were in town."  
  
"I heard the same thing about you." Ephram nods, "one of the Red Cross ladies said that you needed a hand."  
  
"Oh, well yeah, I guess I could use a hand." Amy responds and quickly explains what they were actually doing.  
  
"So how have you been?" Ephram asks once they have settled into a rhythm.  
  
"Good, I've been good. I heard about your wife Ephram, I'm really sorry."  
  
"Amy I can't talk to you about her. There's to much between us for me to be able to talk to you about her, it's weird , to much of a history..."  
  
Amy nods, "yeah, I guess there is. We need to talk though."  
  
Ephram looks around the crowded train station, all of Everwood's people look exhausted and are in shambles, "I don't think that can happen soon. We're here to help, remember?"  
  
Amy nods, "you're right, our personal stuff is going to have to wait until later. But before you go back to New York I do want to talk to you."  
  
Ephram nods, "all right, that can work."  
  
By the time Amy got back to her parents house she was exhausted, it had been a long and emotionally straining day. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't think about Ephram and yet, somehow, she hadn't even thought that he would show up in Everwood and she would have to face him after all of these years.  
  
All right, I know short chapter but in the next chapter you will find out all about Ephram's visit to Amy in Denver, so hopefully I get time to post soon! 


End file.
